The Common Council met 06/19/2024. Most of the meeting was taken up with discussions about the resolution increasing the wheel tax and the resolution regarding pesticide usage by city staff and contractors. They did, however, briefly discuss the recommendation from the Municipal Services Committee that the city formally cease negotiations with Bird Scooter for 2024.
This item was passed by a vote of 14-1 with Alderperson Alex Schultz (District 9) casting the dissenting vote.
I’ve prepared a transcript of the discussion for download:
Alderperson Sheri Hartzheim (District 13) asked for the item to be separated because she was troubled by what she viewed as disparaging remarks made about city staff by Bird representative Adam Davis at the Municipal Services Committee meeting on 06/10/2024. He suggested that some of the issues Bird experienced was because they were working with “a Director of Public Works that had zero interest in managing the program. We’ve proposed these solutions. It just hasn’t been, I think, conveyed to the general public and members of this committee how involved Bird has been in trying to propose the solutions.”
Alderperson Hartzheim said, “I don’t take [those comments] lightly and I’m very disturbed by that. So I want to make sure that everyone in the public is aware that this city has worked very hard to work with Bird.”
Alderperson Katie Van Zeeland (District 5) also said, “I work near downtown so I have used the Bird scooters and thought that I may support going forward, but I was very uncomfortable with the communications with the representatives from the company, and it really turned me off from moving forward.”
The Council went on to approve the recommendation to cease negotiation with Bird for 2024.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1195550&GUID=AEC1BE7F-94E5-447D-B49F-6CDED9394186
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